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"Moving On" is a 216-page instructional manual for students of aikido at about the level of shodan. However, it will also be of benefit for other ranks. Like the previous book, it was written as plainly and clearly as possible. There are 103 photographs and drawings illustrating key points of technique. The author is a fifth degree black belt who has been teaching aikido in England and the USA for 20 years. copyright Spitz Publishing 2002

Alan Drysdale, author of the excellent "Doing Aikido," has set himself an ambitious task with his new "Aikido - Moving On." As the first was written to provide guidance to the middle kyu ranks, "Aikido - Moving On" is aimed at those near or at shodan. His stated goals are to examine the art without mystification, looking at the practical underpinning of why and how it works

Where it adheres to his explicit goals, the book is truly superb: clear and concise, enlarging and expanding on the first book in a meaningful way. One comes to the section on specific techniques, which goes into much greater detail and depth than the first book, after considering an enormous range of more general concepts involved in bringing life to technique. Particular standouts for this reader are his sections on the physics of aikido, on situation control (especially suki), tempo, and kihon. But after two readings, I find that I've marked sentences and passages throughout the book with a highlighter because there are so many "key points" for future rereading.

It is understandable that after training and teaching for a number of decades that there is a desire to share one's thoughts. An early section of the book, entitled A Book of Wind, plus a few smaller sections scattered here and there having to do with the mental and spiritual aspects of the art, are essentially the author's opinions laid out as statements. Each thought could be developed into more of an essay, looking at the subject, drawing in examples and citing from what basis his opinions derive, and as such this would be suitable for another book. Here, these deviations from the goals of the work weaken it overall, and the book would have been better without them.

Overall I heartily recommend "Aikido - Moving On." Its few flawed sections in no way lessen the richness it offers, and it merits a permanent home in the aikidoka's bookcase for ongoing reference.